Saturday

Sep 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Q: Our community (Cumberland) switched from recycling bins to 65-gallon barrels last year. We used four bins, which often overflowed. The new barrels are collected by trucks with mechanical arms and, among...

Q: Our community (Cumberland) switched from recycling bins to 65-gallon barrels last year. We used four bins, which often overflowed. The new barrels are collected by trucks with mechanical arms and, among other benefits, seem to keep our street cleaner after recycling pickup.

Our barrel is also frequently filled to capacity. To make more space and get more material in the barrel, can I crush our soda cans and milk jugs? I’ve always crushed and/or cut corrugated cardboard — is it OK to also flatten and tear smaller boxes? (i.e. I usually open both ends of cereal boxes, flatten and then rip twice in order to quarter them.)

Thanks!

— Jason Freedman

A: Congratulations to Cumberland (and to East Providence, Burrillville, North Kingstown, Pawtucket, East Greenwich, and Smithfield) for joining the ranks this year of automated collection communities!

The large, lidded, wheeled carts make recycling easier for the homeowner and help guarantee cleaner, more valuable recyclables for the town. I’m happy to hear that even your large 65-gallon cart seems to fill to capacity each week.

Regarding the question “to flatten or not to flatten,” the answer is, it depends. For all cardboard boxes, including cereal, pasta, shoe, and other dry goods, YES please do flatten them, but there is no need to further tear the boxes. In fact, larger pieces of cardboard work better in the sorting process. Flattening helps the cardboard box behave like sheets of paper, which is needed for proper sorting. The sorting screens’ disks spin quickly and “walk” the paper over the top, allowing containers to roll back and fall through the spaces in the screens.

This is why the answer for soda cans, milk jugs, etc., is NO. Please do not flatten or completely crush containers. If your cart is crunched for space, containers may be pinched but not flattened. They need to be as 3-D as possible in order to roll back and not behave like paper.

Think about it — if you flatten a can or jug, it will look like a piece of cardboard. The sorting screens will agree and will allow the plastic or metal to travel over the top of the screens. This will cause contamination of the paper and cardboard, leading to lower prices for Rhode Island’s recyclables. The profit from each ton of properly prepared recyclables is split 50-50 with the cities and towns. The more Cumberland recycles, the greater the town’s share of the profit. But in order to maximize this profit, the recyclables must be clean, empty and dry. Keeping containers whole allows them to be sorted properly, and receive the highest value.